Accountability Layers: Explaining Complex System Failures by Parts

A Explaining Software Failures by Cascade Fault Localization

During software debugging, a significant amount of effort is required for programmers to identify the root cause of a manifested failure. In this paper, we propose a cascade fault localization method to help speed up this labor-intensive process via a combination of weakest pre-condition computation and constraint solving. Our approach produces a cause tree, where each node is a potential cause...

Grouping complex face parts by nonlinear oscillations

The Role of Automation in Complex System Failures

Although proponents of advanced information technology argue that automation can improve the reliability of health care delivery, the results of introducing new technology into complex systems are mixed. The new forms of failure that accompany automation challenge technical workers, often demanding novel approaches to recovering from failure and restoring system operations. We present a case wh...

Accountability in Complex Procurement Tenders

This paper addresses the issue of favoritism at the design stage of complex procurement auctions. A local community of citizens wants to procure a complex good or project and lacks the ability to translate its preferences into operational technical specifications. This task is delegated to a public officer who may collude with one of the firms at the design stage of the procurement auction in e...

Explaining a complex living system: dynamics, multi-scaling and emergence.

Complex living systems are difficult to understand. They obey the laws of physics and chemistry, but these basic laws do not explain their behaviour; each component part of a complex system participates in many different interactions and these interactions generate unforeseeable, emergent properties. For example, microscopic interactions between non-living molecules, at the macroscopic level, p...